I’d like to believe that we all have a place like “Cheers” in our life. It’s that place you can go where you know the staff and the staff knows you. They know your favorites. They know when to recommend something new on the menu. It’s like home.
For us, that place is Fat City Kitchen in Alexandria, Virginia. We lived in Arizona for three years now, but we still seek out reasons to pop into City Kitchen when we’re back in the DC area.
When you drive up, you don’t think much of it. It’s in a strip mall behind our old neighborhood. A friend suggested we try it when we moved there and from the first time we were hooked. The food is spectacular, but our “home” there is the bar.
We met Farah on one of our first visits. It took less than a minute to know we’d be great friends. We consider her a bonus daughter. She’s fun and funny. She’s got the perfect blend of customer service and “smart-a$$itude”. We LOVE how she interacts with regulars and first timers.
She’s a one-of-a-kind amazing bartender who crafts her own drinks. There’s a drink on the menu that she invented. The night of that drink’s premiere, we were there. We chatted about it and Greg came up with the name. It stuck. Farah says they’ve tried to take it off the menu a couple of times, but it’s just too popular. The Mercator’s Dream is a favorite with us … and many others.
The food is unrivaled. There are a couple of off-menu items we know are always available … because we were such regulars. When we renovated our kitchen, we ate there every night for a couple of weeks. The specials change and are always mouth-watering, but the regular items are so great it’s still hard to choose.
This time, when we went east, we saved our last night for “CK” and the gang there we’ve come to know and love. It caps any visit perfectly … and makes heading home a little bittersweet.
There’s a whole world out there just waiting to be explored. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a place that makes being away feel a little more like home!
© The World A to Z, LLC 2022 — Unless otherwise indicated, no compensation was received for this blog. On this evening, we received a complimentary drink.
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